Hacked
by nyroc128
Summary: He saw his life in stages. Spawned. Tamed. Shown to friends. But all of that time, the Voice had been there, telling him: You're a creeper; join the mobs, for the Mob War stirs... REWRITTEN. Rated T for a few cases of language, but that's it
1. Spawned

Hacked

Chapter 1: Spawned

**A/N: For any new readers out there, this story went through a rewrite so**** some chapters have been deleted and the numbers will be off.**

The creeper blinked. What just happened? First, nothing, then he had just appeared out of nowhere.

It's called spawning, said a voice in his head.

He looked around. Behind him, some kind of caged fire was burning, covered with ashes and a slightly glowing dust. He was in a room made of cobblestone covered in moss and vines. He turned more, and his eyes locked on a figure.

A person was open-mouthed, looking surprised, frightened, and angry at the same time. His arms were loaded with some gray powder that, for some reason, made the creeper feel nauseous. The person looked like, _Oops! Ah, darn. Why'd you do that, me?_

They stared in confusion, when a voice struck his head. Notch? Programming? The creeper had enough time to think this before the voice took over.

_Kill him! Kill the person!_ The creeper bent to Notch's will, advancing toward the person. The person inched back. Coward! But why did he have that smug look on his face?

There was a sudden flash of green, white and black. The creeper felt something crack in his head, as if something was tweaking his mind. The voice in his head was still screaming, _Kill! Kill! _but it was growing more faint, fading away…

He blinked. The programming wasn't audible in his mind anymore. It had been cleared away, like someone had pushed all of the junk off of a messy desk, or someone had blanked it out with White-Out. All that was left was a sort of emptiness. Another voice was present now, but not in his mind.

"…got done with the main stuff, but the AI is still left, it'll… I mean, you'll need it." The words were from the person, and the creeper realized he could understand the words, like a foreign language suddenly understood. Furthermore the person was addressing him.

"Huh?" What issued from his mouth was no longer only hissing.

"I'm Steve." The person smiled. "I'm calling you Charlie."


	2. Home

Chapter 2: Home

Charlie watched Steve place a burning stick on the caged fire.

"Won't burn out?" asked Charlie.

"Uh, no. The spawner doesn't."

The term "spawn" meant to appear from thin air (or something), and although Charlie had only been in the world for a few minutes, he knew enough that he could not have come from the stick since it had not been there before. Therefore the caged fire was a spawner.

"The stick."

"Oh, the torch. No, that won't either."

"Why?"

"Eh, ah, they just do. I didn't make the world, or Minecraft."

The two left the room, which Steve told Charlie was called a dungeon. Outside was dimly lit with sticks-torches, Charlie remembered.

Charlie looked about. They were in a dark tunnel with the torches on the walls of the tunnel. Parts of the tunnel branched out, some of the branches lit and others not-unexplored, probably. Charlie also noticed that Steve was always keeping one hand on some sort of stick.

"What's that for?" Charlie motioned to the stick thing.

Steve looked at it. "Oh, that's a sword. I defend myself with it."

"I don't think defending yourself with a stick is very good."

"Ha," laughed Steve, "here, look." He unsheathed the sword, revealing a bright, sharp blade previously hidden by some kind of pocket. Steve waved the blade around. "It's made out of iron. I'd like to find diamond, which is the best." They continued down the tunnel. Up ahead there was light and strange noises. Steve explained that the noises were animal noises.

When the two got out of the cave, Steve announced, "This is home."

_Home?_thought Charlie. _All __I __see __is __a __bunch __of __trees._ For indeed, all there was to see were trees with vines, animals, and ponds. Steve seemed to read his thoughts as they walked through the humid swamp, asking, "Don't see much, do you?" Charlie nodded. "Look up." Charlie did. First he saw a wooden block on the tree. Steve lives on a wooden block. Wow.

Then it occurred to him that the wooden block was hollow and had windows. Steve had a house in the trees. Bridges connected the house to other rooms in the trees. A ladder led up to the biggest wooden block-sorry, house.

An entire civilization in the treetops.

"Wow," breathed Charlie. Steve grinned, approaching the big house.

"Let's go up," he said. He walked up to it and started climbing the ladder. Charlie stayed put. When Steve realized that he wasn't following, he jumped down and asked, "Something wrong?"

"I don't think I can climb," said Charlie, "because I don't have arms."

"Hmm," mused Steve, "I've wondered about that too. No one is really sure how they can do it, but you cree- eh, you can just do it."

To Charlie's immense surprise, he could climb up without the use of arms whatsoever. Weird.

Steve closed a door on the floor, then looked out the window. "Well, sun's down," he said. "Good night." He promptly lay on a wooly, flat object and proceeded to look very dead. Charlie stared.

Time passed. Charlie was bored and decided to explore.

There were bookshelves, but Charlie couldn't read so he didn't touch the books. There were many boxes with shiny latches-iron, maybe? Charlie didn't open them because he didn't have arms, hands or fingers (although no one in Minecraft does). One of the rooms had an entrance to the outdoors. Charlie couldn't open the door, but he looked through a hole in the door to see some fuzzy, white, noisy animals mixed with round, cream-colored objects; fenced off from the edge and some tall, yellow-green plants growing from the dirt. Another room had a wall made of something. Charlie wasn't sure what it was. It was clear, but Charlie couldn't seem to see through it. There was a hole (ventilation, probably), which Charlie stuck his head out of.

The landscape was diverse; the area with the houses was swampy, another area had a forest with tall, dark trees, and another part was sandy with a river. On the horizon sat some mountains.

Pretty, thought Charlie. He was glad he hadn't blown up and could see this…

Wait. Blow up?

Yes. You were supposed to blow up, as soon as you set your eyes on that human.

Where are these thoughts coming from?

Blow up

No

Do it

I won't

DO IT

NO

What was happening? Charlie's head hurt from confusion and two invisible, mental forces clashing. He ran to Steve's room, trying to escape the mental conversation.

Steve was getting up. He turned, saw Charlie, and said, "Good morning, Charlie." He came to one of the boxes and opened it. Rummaging through it, he pulled out many objects. Charlie was amazed at how they all fit.

Steve slung a bow and quiver over his shoulder. He pulled out and sheathed his sword. He brought out several torches, cooked meat, and other assorted items that Charlie couldn't identify. "Are we going somewhere?" he asked.

"Oh, we're going hunting, gathering, exploring," answered Steve. "And I thought that some of my friends would like to meet you, too."


	3. Friends

Chapter 3: Friends

MINECART STATION, the sign read.

Steve had led Charlie to this place, saying that his friends didn't live close. The shack-sorry, Minecart Station- did not look very luxurious or friendly. It was filled with noise, yelling and an occasional curse.

"Are you sure about this?" Charlie asked nervously. The feeling of being around a bunch of rowdy, swearing humans didn't feel very right to Charlie. Every instinct told him either to run away or go in and do something violent (he didn't understand the second one).

"Of course I'm sure. It's just riding minecarts." Charlie didn't know what a minecart was, let alone a Minecart Station.

Steve flipped the oversize switch that opened a shiny (iron, again) door and walked into the building. Without much choice, Charlie followed.

The air inside was damp and did not smell very good. There were a lot of chests with signs saying things like FREE USED MINECARTS: PLEASE RETURN AFTER USE or BUY A MINECART FOR [so-and-so] COINS and other things that Charlie did not understand very well.

Despite the noise heard outside, the majority of the noise appeared to be coming from two humans yelling at each other. Something about stealing or bad prices or something like that. The rest of the noise was the clanking of the minecarts' wheels on the tracks.

Steve placed down two minecarts on the tracks. Charlie stared at the minecarts. They appeared to be a big container without a top on wheels.

Charlie stared at the minecart. The minecart did nothing. Charlie stared at the minecart. The minecart did nothing. Charlie stared at the minecart. The minecart did nothing. Charlie stared at the minecart. The minecart did nothing. Charlie stared at the minecart. The minecart did not do nothing because Steve had pushed it, and now it was moving slowly.

"Go in," said Steve. He shoved Charlie onto the tracks and into the path of the minecart.

"Um, Steve?" Charlie asked. The minecart was inching slowly toward him. Steve was busy putting down another minecart. "Steve?" The minecart had hit some gold and red tracks and had sped up considerably. "Steve, I'm starting to have second thoughts…" The minecart was coming at him fast and seconds away from collision. "STE-" Charlie didn't bother finish and began running away from the minecart and screaming, making a scene. A few people started to draw swords, but Steve yelled, "Dontworryitsokay!"

Charlie was still running away, and at one point he looked behind him to see how close the minecart was. However, he wasn't looking where he was going and failed to notice that there was an incoming turn, and he ended up crashing into the wall.

Charlie unsteadily got up. Everything was spinning. Especially that big gray wheeled object coming toward him very fast. Charlie shook the stars out of his vision and looked again. Yes, it was the minecart, and there was no time to react. He started to turn to run again, but not before the minecart hit him.

Charlie expected it to hurt. Charlie expected it to run over him. Charlie expected that the minecart would crash and he would be a green blob on either the front or the bottom of the minecart. What he did _not _expect was to be instantly, painlessly teleported into the inside of the minecart. Which was what happened. The rest of the minecart ride was okay, except the occasional cart-sickness and the resulting vomiting (Steve claimed that Charlie would look green after this happened, but Charlie had no idea how he could tell, since he was already green).

After a few hours, Charlie and Steve arrived at another shack-like Minecart Station. Charlie's minecart hit a red-and-gold rail, sped forward, and hit a block, sending Charlie flying through a hole in the wall and landing in a pile of cold, white powder (supposedly, the hole and the block were for this purpose). Seconds later, Steve landed a block away from him.

"Did you like your first minecart ride?" Steve asked, grinning.

Charlie shook his head, spraying snow everywhere.

"No? Well, then, that's the main transport method here, so you better get used to it."

Steve led Charlie to a house made of wooden planks and cobbled stones. There was a sign above saying 'MY HOUSE NOT URS,' another saying 'NO ANGRY MOBS ALLOWED' and another saying 'lol u got greifed yawellifixdmyhouse.' Yet another sign said 'home sweet home' and also had a little symbol thingy:

(There was supposed to be something here, but compatibility problems occurred)

_These people are _very _fond of signs,_ thought Charlie. He watched as Steve knocked on the door.

"Yeah?" a voice came from the house, and a suspicious set of eyes looked to the possible intruder.

"Look, I did what you asked for. Just don't be an insensitive jerk while you're around him, okay?"

"Steve? Is that you?"

Steve facepalmed. "How could you possibly be so ignorant?"

While Steve's hands were still in his face, the door swung open and knocked Steve backwards into the space between consciousness and oblivion. An overenthusiastic, trembling person jumped out the door and gawked at Charlie, followed closely by a more bored looking fellow.

"What," Steve mumbled.

"Holy dosh Steve you actually got your hands on a creeper and you somehow tamed it wow that is really amazing," said the twitchy one, saying it like it was one word.

The other one said nothing, just looked at Charlie like he was a cow about to be killed and he was sizing up the joints.

"Okay. You, Phoenix," Steve got up and pointed to the crazy one. "You are an idiot and I don't know why I hang around you." He swung around and looked at the bored one. "Dennis, you're just creeping the hell out of the creeper." He chuckled a bit at his own joke, while Dennis gave him a dramatic eye roll. "Also, his name is Charlie."

"You named it _Charlie_?" asked Phoenix.

Steve shrugged. "Charlie the creeper," he said. "It has a nice ring to it. Now pay up." One of Steve's supposed friends nodded and tossed him two frosted pastries and a shiny, green-blue rock.

Charlie was confused. What was so special about him that caused the two friends to goggle over him so?

"Oh yeah, introductions. How impolite of me. Charlie, this is Phoenix-"

"Hi," said Phoenix, jumping up and down. Bits of snow flew everywhere.

"-and this is Dennis. He has some other nickname though, but that's not important." The other person nodded to Charlie. "So guys, shall we eat the cake?"

"How do we split it?" asked Phoenix. "There are four of us and six slices of cake."

"If we had proper measurements, we could each eat 1 ½ of a slice." Said Steve.

"We don't," Dennis replied. "We don't even have a knife. I guess we could use a sword, but... nah."

"I used to have a knife," Phoenix piped up, "but some joker stole it from me when they greifed our house. It sucks, because I was getting pretty good at throwing it, and-"

"No Phoenix, shut up, you're not good at anything. You nearly took my eye out." Phoenix flipped Dennis the bird, which he ignored.

"Just let two people eat two slices," he said.

"Well, _which_ two people?"

"Let Steve and the creeper ("His name is Charlie!" yelled Steve) have two slices, they're the guests, after all."

"All right." Steve took two slices of cake while the other two took one. Charlie had no idea how to take the cake, so after everyone took a slice, he just shoved his face into the cake and (tried to) eat it. The sweet, slightly grainy stuff on the top of the cake smeared all over his face. Charlie heard the others snicker.

"So are we here for the more serious matters?" asked Dennis.

"Like the Mob War? Nah, pfft. Let's just have a little fun." said Phoenix. He pulled out a shovel and began whacking the ground, causing little white spheres to materialize from where the shovel touched snow. Charlie didn't quite understand what this all meant until the snowball hit him.

The world flashed white for a moment, and Charlie spat snow and frosting. What was this? Were Steve's friends trying to kill each other? However, the snowballs seemed to do no kind of damage, and Steve was also participating in the snowball fight.

The snowballs didn't do anything. They were currently being used for pure recreation. Such an idea was so foreign and... strange. Who would do such a thing, wasting time and resources?

"C'mon, Charlie," called Steve. "Join the fun, you're missing out." Steve was promptly knocked down by a snowball from Phoenix.

"Y'see, I _am_ good at some things!" Phoenix called, before having multiple snowballs collide with his head.

What a bunch of annoying gits, thought Charlie. Then he smiled. More than one could play at being annoying.

Charlie, having no proper limbs, could only kick up large amounts of snow and attempt to deflect snowballs with pathetically disappointing success. He still got the general idea of gaining pleasure from watching someone swear profusely after getting their pants full of a cold white wetness.

And Charlie's day ended in a flurry of snow, frosting, late sunlight and the fuzzy feeling of friendship.

**AN: The actual inspiration for Charlie's name was when I watched someone on a server nickname a non-hostile creeper "Charlie."**


	4. Traitor

Chapter 4: Traitor

Charlie's head felt light and dizzy. He felt happy from all that had happened with Steve's friends. They had a lot of fun with cakes and snowballs.

"Uh oh," said Steve. Charlie blinked himself out of his lightheadedness. Everything was dark. _Why does he worry?_ Charlie thought. To him, the darkness seemed like a very welcome, natural thing. Not to mention it was what made him.

Charlie blinked again. He couldn't quite remember the last thought, but it had felt important.

Early into the evening, Steve and Charlie had left their friends' house and went the Minecart Station that they had left from originally. Of course, it still took a while to get home.

Charlie smiled. "So what about it? Home's not even that far away."

Steve shook his head. "Of course you don't understand." He sighed. "It's better to stay that way, isn't it?"

"What?" Charlie exclaimed. "What do I not understand?"

Steve opened his mouth when there was a rustling noise. No, not really rustling. It was something in between running water and stepping on dry shrubs/grass; a sort of _krkshh_ noise. Charlie recognized it: it was a mob on grass.

Steve swore under his breath. "It's better to stay that way," he repeated softly, and shoved Charlie-hard- into a nearby tree. "Stay there. If you move even a step, I swear to Notch that I will kill you." Charlie was frightened. He had never seen Steve act so coldly to him. This Steve was so different than the Steve he knew not 3 hours (about 4 minutes) ago.

Steve darted out of view. Seconds later, there was a swishing noise, the thud of two objects striking, and the _kst_ sound from some unknown mob.

Charlie gasped. The sound was so quick and quiet, yet so familiar. It dawned on him that it was the very noise he once made when he first met Steve. Whatever Steve was attacking, it was one of his kind. What had Steve and his friends called him again? Oh yeah, a creeper.

Charlie began to hyperventilate. He was putting two and two together, and the resulting four wasn't a good one. Both he and what Steve was attacking was a creeper. Creepers are evidently not very good things, seeing how Steve was attacking the other creeper.

But Steve and his friends welcomed you, he reasoned with himself. You're a creeper, too. So then why is Steve attacking the other one?

There was a hissing noise that interrupted Charlie's thoughts. Hesitantly, Charlie peeked around the tree. He wished he hadn't .

Steve had his sword out, and was mercilessly hacking away at another mob. The mob was green, like Charlie, and had a strange pattern of black squares on its face, suggesting eyes and an open-mouthed, permanent scowl. Charlie watched in horror as Steve raised his blade one final time.

The other creeper locked eyes with Charlie. Immediately its face was contorted with hatred, and it hissed, "_Traitor!_" right before Steve's sword struck it, and it dissolved into ashes and particle effects.

The creeper's last words reminded Charlie of when he and Steve first met. Steve was talking, and the words began to make sense as he began to understand the language. When the creeper spoke, Charlie could tell that he had spoken in a different language and that Charlie understood it some time ago. Also, as far as he knew, Steve was not an expert in second Minecraftian languages and had no idea what the creeper had said (let alone spoke at all, to him it was probably just random hissing).

The creeper had called him a traitor.

What was it that made him one?


	5. Skulk

Chapter 5: Skulk

"Ah, it's late now," Steve said. "Good night." He flopped forward onto the bed an lay face-down with his arms hanging down the sides.

"E-"Charlie couldn't quite say anything. "Y- W-"

After the other creeper had been killed, Charlie had absentmindedly walked behind Steve. Steve must have been tired because he had forgotten to close the trapdoor.

Charlie stared at the open trapdoor. As a creeper, he had never been able to open any kind of door. With the door open, Charlie could go out…

…Out into the open darkness, lonely and vulnerable. Anyone could mistake him for a normal creeper.

Ah, yes, the voice chided, but you can escape from Steve.

"Escape?" Are you saying that Steve is keeping me trapped in here? Charlie asked the voice. Don't be daft.

Perhaps you are the one being daft. Besides, no one would be daft enough to go out at this time of night.

Well… Charlie thought. Maybe one walk outside wouldn't hurt. Steve won't wake up until sunrise, anyway.

Suddenly there was a rustling sound, and Charlie froze. _Something was climbing up the ladder…_

A green head popped up. "Hey there!" Despite the eternal frowns on creepers' faces, this one somehow managed to look cheerful.

"Eh… Hi…" Charlie stammered out. This was his first time to meet with another creeper. "You… you really shouldn't be here…"

"Sso what? _You_ shouldn't be here either. Bessides, that human is going to sstay asleep until ssunrise. I'm going to introdusse you to the world you should know. Follow me." The creeper jumped down the hole that led down to the world unknown.

I don't see why I shouldn't go, Charlie thought. He followed the other creeper.

The other creeper talked while they walked. "You ssee, all of the mobss are kinda ticked off by thesse humans, who are invading our worldss. We want to rid of them all. We all meet and live in these big cavess and raviness. The biggesst, most unexplored one it called the Ssubterranean Complex. Even _I _know little about it. There are otherss, like the Citadel of Sspiders, Cavern of Chaos, Hole of Beastss, Dream Den, and sso forth. I'm taking you to the Frontier Cavern. It'ss about number 4 on the importansse list. We are coming up with sstrategies to take down the humans. A war hass been raging. We call it the Mob War."

A memory stirred in Charlie's mind. One of Steve's friends, Phoenix or Dennis, had mentioned something about the Mob War.

"Sso some of us have been keeping an eye on you for a while. I got ssent to get you out, and what a wonderful thing that I didn't have to blow up to make an opening! That sure would have sstartled you!"

Charlie's head jerked. "Blow up?"

"Yuh huh." The other creeper said quite casually. "It just occurred to me.. You sseem to be missssing your Minecraftian accssent... Hmm... Probably from living with that human for sso long..." He was probably talking about how Charlie didn't elongate his s's.

"So, uh, enough of that stuff for now…" Charlie said. "Maybe you could tell me your name."

"Name?" The other creeper frowned. "We don't have names. We have numbers and letters. They call me MC-2584."

"All right, then…"

"We're here."

Charlie looked up. A menacing-looking cave stared back. Strange noises floated out of the mouth. If it was dark outside, the darkness seemed gray compared to the shadows in the cave.

"Are you going in?" 2584 asked. "Or are you too chicken?" A nearby chicken squawked in disapproval at the taunt.

Charlie looked at the cave, then back at 2584. "I'm going," he answered.

**Disclaimer: I do not own the cave names. They belong to Pikmin 2.**


	6. Shadows

Chapter Six: Shadows

It was dark in the cave.

_Well, what did you expect? _Charlie said to himself. _It's a cave._ Still, despite the darkness, Charlie found that he was still able to see well.

All night mobs were built for it, said the Voice.

2584 walked to a ravine. "All right, let'ss jump down," he said. Then he jumped down.

"What the-" Charlie watched in horror as 2584 nonchalantly walked straight into the ravine. It would mean instant death if he hit the bottom. Charlie had reached a conclusion-2584 was a nutcase- and was about to leave when he heard a splash.

Charlie looked down. 2584 was smiling pleasantly up towards him next to a pillar of water. The water must have kept 2584, or any mob for that matter, from getting major fall damage.

Charlie jumped toward the pillar of water. For a moment there was nothing but air between him and the ground. He was falling to the ground, fast, and then he landed in a pool of water.

"Wow," said Charlie. "How do you get back up?"

"You sswim up the water," replied 2584.

2584 led Charlie to an expanse of small room-like, well, rooms. They were kind of like rooms. A few of them had carpets of moss; others had the room dimly lit by a caged fire. Charlie remembered that they were called spawners. 2584 brought Charlie to one of the rooms.

"Everyone, I've got a recruit! Thiss iss-" He leaned to Charlie and whispered, "What'ss your name again?"

"Charlie," Charlie said for everyone to hear.

"Good work, 2584," the creeper at the front of the room spoke. "I'm glad that your effortss have gotten us s_somewhere._" There was an odd disappointment in his voice, and Charlie noticed that 2584 shifted in visible discomfort. "As for you, Charlie." The creeper turned to him. "You are now assigned the ID MC-3435."

"Well, thank you," Charlie said, hiding his sarcasm.

"All right, 3435, you're in time for the message." The creeper at front turned to a book and began to read.

"Now, I know all of you have heard this one before, but I want to review for 3435 here. You ssee, 3435, in the beginning, Notch made Minecraft with the help of his brother Herobrine. They created all of nature as well as the mobs- from the infamous creeper to the weeping Ghasts to the innocent pigs, cows, and chickens. He put us here to live in our beautiful, natural world. We would live in harmony if our pride wasn't broken, if our hearts kept at their highest, and so forth.

"However, then the humanss came in."

Charlie resisted the want to interject, to offer information about Steve and how much fun he had with the friends, but something- possibly the Voice- told him to shut up and listen. There was something mystic and fantastical about the story that made him want to keep listening.

"Humans were- no, _are_- selfish beings that only thought for themselves. Herobrine wanted to protect nature, but the humanss used their magic and toolss to invade the underground, level the mountainss, enslave animalss and build villagess."

Herobrine, huh, Charlie thought. Maybe I'll tell Steve about it.

"That's why Herobrine made us- to protect and defend our homeland from the humanss. That is our goal. That is our purposse."

"Who exactly is Herobrine?" Charlie asked. The creeper at front gave him a curious look. "Well, I mean, you said he's Notch's brother, but Notch is still sort of around, right? Where's Herobrine? Shouldn't he be helping you guys out?"

The creeper cleared his throat. "Well, yess, Herobrine has been noticeably inactive for a very long time." He gazed upon the mobs present. "Don't take my word for what I'm about to ssay, because I don't know if it'ss true. There aren't many mobss who are sstill alive when this ssuposedly happened. It's been said Herobrine had an... accident while creating the great Enderdragon. His essence has been -oh, how to ssay it- scattered, I ssuppose. He doesn't have the power or consciousness to bring himself back. Yet. We all have faith that Herobrine will return to aid us."

An uncanny silence settled on the room like a silvery dust, only no one could brush it off.

"Anyway, off with you mobss. Next!" the creeper yelled. The mobs filed out of the room-like room.

Rather than having Charlie go to some other room-like room to "learn the basics," 2584 told Charlie all he had to know. The mobs that were able to attack the humans, called "hostile mobs," were the zombies, skeletons, creepers, spiders, cave spiders, silverfish, Endermen, and slimes, the latter being quite rare. All mobs detested humans, but only these ones could retaliate. The other kind of mob, called "passive mobs," consisted of chickens, cows, pigs, sheep, and squid.

"The powers that be have told me that you're going to ssee a battle. We're going to have one tonight. Let'ss go!" 2584 ran off to another wing of the cavern.

A skeleton was at the front. The present mobs were discussing battle strategies.

"So you see, after the first round of arrows from the skeletons, the spiders and zombies will come in to attack. After they have all cleared out, the creepers will come in and blow everything up. Then we send in the rest of the Endermen, spiders, and zombies to finish them off."

"How sso, MS-2157?" a creeper asked.

The skeleton shrugged. "The usual. Just come in and go straight, like all of the other attacks we've done."

"But aren't they expecting us? We alwayss sstrike every other night," a spider piped up.

"Oh well, then."

"They'll be prepared," Charlie said.

"Whosat?" The spider shrieked. "Oh. Oh, jusst a creeper. Your human-like dialect threw me off there."

The skeleton glared at the two. "2584, you and your... friend here aren't authorized. Whatever it is you have to say it better be important. We're discussing tonight's battle."

"I noticed," 2584 muttered. "'M not an idiot."

Charlie allowed himself to feel a twinge of pity for 2584 before starting to speak.

"You said that you strike every other night. They know that you're coming. They know your battle strategies by now, and they'll have figured out how to strike back in the most effective way. They have the smarts and weapons to do that, you know." Charlie said.

"Okay, then," the skeleton said, somewhat sarcastically. "Then what do _you_ suggest?"

"This is what I suggest," Charlie said. "After your first round of arrows when the spiders and zombies come in, have them all in a line. Make the sides stronger than the front. The humans will see that, and they'll be baited toward the middle. Then have the stronger sides close drive back the humans that they are against and then close in to the humans that are fighting the middle, so that they'll be surrounded."

The skeleton looked surprised. "We never really considered that," he said. "It's-"

"Ingenious," said 2584.

"Human thinking!" hissed the spider. "This is what we get when one of our kind has lived with the humans!"

"Wait, what?" Charlie started. "How do you know about that?"

The skeleton, 2157, huffed. "News travels fast here, whatever-your-number-is. There's no need to be surprised if any of your personal matters are leaked. It's quite normal. Anyway," 2157 nodded to the spider. "Just another reason why we need Herobrine with us," he said. To Charlie he said, "You'll see your movement in action later tonight. For now, get the fighting units prepared."

It wasn't until later that Charlie realized what he had just done.

He'd betrayed Steve, the human.

**Note: I have absolutely nothing to do with the Youtube video about a friendly creeper named Charlie.**


	7. Battlefront

Chapter 7: Battlefront

No, this can't be happening, Charlie thought.

There was no going back now. 2584 was marching him out of the ravine and into the night. They followed the sound of clanking, moaning (which sounded a lot like snoring, for some reason), and hissing. To Charlie, it felt like a march to the scaffold.

"You weren't really trained for combat, sso you're just going to be watching," 2584 told him.

"I'm fine with that," Charlie managed to get out. For the rest of the walk, any other attempts at conversation was clanky and awkward; after all, many of the mobs were unlikely to see another night. It seemed only Charlie felt that way, though- the mobs seemed almost cheery, convinced that 3435's new tactics would bring them a guaranteed victory. He watched as the spiders and skeletons shared snippets of banter and the creepers made jokes among themselves. Meanwhile, Charlie felt like throwing up.

It felt so odd, having _anyone_ put so much faith into him. Creepers had always been simple weapons of an endless war. And all of a sudden, he was put into a position where both human or mob would rely on him, and he didn't like it. It was like being trapped, cornered like an animal, with no choice but to go along when you knew that you would only die in the end.

"Are you..." 2584 gave him an uncomfortable look. "Are you feeling alright?"

Charlie almost said "no" to his fellow creeper, but abruptly shut his mouth. Since when did he ever trust 2584 with such personal information? The turmoil stirring inside him was a conflict for him and him only.

_What about Steve?_

He briefly considered it. There was no way he was telling Steve, the human. First off, Steve would be pissed to find out that Charlie was conspiring with other mobs. Maybe it was just the mob's talking that was getting to him, but something made him start distrusting the human. Steve had been with Charlie at a delicate time in his life- when he was a simple creeper with no mind, a blank canvas ready for any kind of brainwashing. Perhaps Steve thought that he had done Charlie a favor by giving him a consciousness and a voice, but it only rewarded him with the heavy pain of responsibility.

_This can't be happening_, he thought again. Desperately he hoped that maybe everything was a dream, an illusion, as the night sky above him became the color of false beliefs and whispered lies.

Maybe he could cry out, tell the world that he didn't want to be here, surrounded by an army of doomed mobs who believed in a cause as broken and twisted as the universe itself. Maybe he could cry out for mercy, tell the world that the war had to stop because he couldn't bring himself to see the eternal pain that the ephemeral mortals threw upon themselves. Maybe he could cry out in reality and command the mobs to stop their frenzied waltz to the gallows. But he knew, even as a simple-minded creeper, that there was no use crying out for help in a crowd that couldn't hear and wouldn't listen.

It was too late for anything, now.

"Let'ss ssee your tacticss in action," 2584 whispered. The creeper's words shocked Charlie back into the present. They were standing on an outcropping that looked over a village. The mobs were not visible, but he knew that they were somewhere in the shadows, preparing themselves for the fight.

A flaming arrow sliced through the nighttime sky, bleeding bright red flames as it flew. It planted itself in a wheat farm. "That'ss the ssignal," explained 2584. "They're going to attack!"

The village seemed to panic. A few humans came out and turned out the fires in the wheat, but Charlie could see that the villagers were bristling. There were flashes of moonlight as weapons were drawn.

Then it happened. Arrows shot from the trees and blanketed the night sky. Expertly aimed, they landed in the village. Charlie cringed, watching several headshots take down unlucky villagers who went down without knowing what hit them. Now that the village knew for certain they were being attacked, those with the bravery (or stupidity) and weapons charged toward the source of the arrows.

"Come on, let'ss get closser," 2584 hissed excitedly. He jumped down from the outcropping and walked, then climbed up a ladder into an abandoned tree post. Charlie silently followed his bloodthirsty companion.

The humans drew closer to the trees, where the mobs were secreted.

The mobs burst from the darkness itself. The spiders hissed their battle cries, the Endermen screeched as their eyes met the humans'. The battle seemed to happen in stages: first the mobs were on top of the humans, then the humans made a sudden retaliation, then either ran back for help or were ganged up on by mobs. Chaos ensued. Fires were lit and licked up the dry grass, consuming all creatures in their path. Both mobs and humans fell to the ground. More humans were coming from the village. They were being baited by the weaker inner line. As the mobs and humans were locked in combat, the side lines closed in on the humans, trapping them in the middle. Charlie's plan had worked- and he was sorry for it.

Charlie wanted to turn away, close his eyes, run away and hide from the actions he had caused. He wanted to scream at the violence, the destruction, the death and murder that splattered the stolid earth and soaked the empty sky. But he couldn't. He could not look away. He stared- enthralled, horrified, frozen in hate for the world.

Almost all of the humans were slaughtered. Some of them tried retreating to the safety of the village, only to be taken down by the excited mobs. Charlie's eyes came to rest on the village. The whole village was on fire, for some reason. Maybe some idiot thought that the fires would make the battle seem more epic.

The retreating humans hid in the houses. The air was overflowing with the sound of locks clicking and doors slamming, occasionally punctuated by screams for help of the dying.

Then the creepers came in.

A whole line of creepers marched, practically sauntered, into the village. The whole group seemed to pulse white as the last moments of their life slipped through their empty eyes.

Even when the explosion happened, Charlie could not blink. The noise wanted to crush him, grind him into the dark of the night, but he stood standing and looked on. And although he was not one of the humans being killed or the mobs being fought, Charlie felt the most helpless out of any entity there.

The village had been obliterated. A few human survivors stumbled off into the night, hounded by mobs. The remaining mobs scooped up what the humans had dropped and melted into the forest, back to the Frontier Cavern.

"Well?" 2584 turned and grinned at Charlie. "How did you like sseeing your first battle?"

Charlie gave him a sober look. "…Let's just say that I'm not keen to see another one."

He hoped 2584 would be as ignorant as ever, but there was more to the creeper than he would have thought. "Look, I know the carnage isn't the most beautiful thing ever, but it needss to be done. You _know_ what humanss have done to us." He paused, and Charlie stiffened. Did 2584 know how Charlie had seen Steve kill the creeper? It was impossible. Or so he hoped.

2584 sighed. "Look, even if you think we're enemiess, we're enemiess with a a common interest- eliminating the humanss. That is, if you really are what you claim to be." He gave Charlie a chilling look. "I hope to Notch you're not ssympathizing for the humanss. Otherwise we'd have to resort to... unorthodox measuress."

Charlie tore his eyes away from the sky that he had been staring at and looked right at 2584. "Don't you think this is wrong? The way you mobs are playing it, you're just as bad the the humans! Do you really think all this death and destruction will _make things right_?"

"Then what other way is there?" 2584 was almost screaming. "What is it that _you_ want uss to do? You think you're all that because you're the creeper who got a voice and a mind, and you never gave a _shit_ about anyone else that had to ssuffer! I want to be independent and be mysself, just like any other mob, and I want the mobss to be ssuccessfull, just like any other mob! Lend your voice to _us_, and you can end the pain that _everyone _goes through, and sstop being ssuch a _selfish fu-_!"

2584 suddenly stopped his tirade. "You'd best get going, now," he muttered, and his voice seemed to have dropped an octave.

Charlie was frightened by the creeper. He didn't know 2584 was able to show so much emotion, but he didn't understand 2584's warning until he saw a glint of light. Had a human snuck up to their little hideout?

Then Charlie realized: It wasn't light reflecting from a weapon. It was light from the sun itself. The mobs would have shade in the trees, but that wasn't what worried Charlie.

Charlie managed to throw in a pitiful "I'm sorry" as he scurried down the tree and to raced Steve's house. _Please let him be asleep, please let him be asleep… _Charlie silently prayed. He tried to keep his mind off of what had just happened, as well as the possible consequences if Steve was indeed awake.

He was running-almost sprinting, even- to the one tree among the hundreds, the one human among the 16 million.

There! There it was! The ladder stared back at Charlie, who almost screamed in relief. By now the sun was creeping up its daily path. The long shadows began to grow shorter and shorter, bit by bit…

Charlie's head burst through the trapdoor hole. He was afraid to look, afraid to see what might be awaiting him. The atmosphere buckled with the tension. Hesitantly, he turned to Steve's bed.

Steve was snoring away.

"Whew!" Charlie let a loud, long, breath.

**Note: The tactic that Charlie came up with in the previous chapter is a tactic used by the Athenians in the Battle of Marathon.**


	8. Unanswered

Chapter 9: Unanswered

The stars shone bright. The cows, pigs, sheep and chickens made soft noises that sounded comforting, but Charlie knew better. For all he knew, they were spitting nasty insults at humans.

"Tomorrow night we strike. Be there," 2584 had whispered, right before Charlie was out of earshot. Oh, Charlie could do that. He could manipulate Steve to do his will, if Charlie wanted to. He could-

Charlie shook his head. Only one night in the Frontier Cavern, and the mobs' preaching was already corrupting his thoughts. Or was it Notch?

Not corrupting. Fixing. The Voice said.

Charlie looked at the snoring Steve. He looked so innocent there.

Whoever knew that he could kill mobs so viciously? The Voice questioned.

There it was again. The Voice.

Go away, thought Charlie. Go away, go away, go away! I never wanted to be tangled in this mess, anyway…

So if it's too complicated for you, why don't you submit to Notch's will, All of this independent confusion will be over. You won't need to think.

Charlie weighed his options. What do creepers do in the mob army? He thought.

He remembered one of his first encounters with the Voice.

_Wait. Blow up?_

_ Yes. You were supposed to blow up._

Creepers explode and never come back.

Charlie smirked. No way that I'm going to Notch, he thought.

So you'll betray your own kind, kin, and purpose for you own selfish pursuits? The Voice countered.

Charlie hesitated. The Voice had a point there.

Charlie looked at Steve. He listened to the passive mobs.

"Whose side am I on?" he whispered aloud.

The question hung in the misty air, remaining unanswered.


	9. Beginning

Chapter 10: Beginning

Of course he was there. He had to be there.

He still didn't know about his loyalty. If he had to be a double-crosser for now, let it be. It wasn't like anyone cared about _him_, a lowly creeper.

He tried to talk an unhurried walk to the Frontier Cavern, but he swore that he felt the stare of an Enderman burning into him and hastened his pace. What was it that 2517 had said? _There's no need to be surprised if your personal matters get leaked. It's quite normal._

He found 2584 waiting at the entrance. The creeper made no mention of what had happened the last time they had met. If anything, he seemed elated with the prospect of watching another battle, even whistling an ancient war tune as the two followed the mob's fighting troops.

As they walked, 2584 filled him in on recent mob news. "You and I have been assigned to overlooking the battless now. I guess they think that if you're expossed to more battless, you'll ssee the humans' fighting sstrategy and come up with better tacticss for us."

Charlie almost asked why 2584 was tagging along, but he knew why. The mobs didn't trust him, and they needed someone that Charlie knew well to monitor his actions. It pained him to know that the one he considered to be as close to a friend as possible to him wasn't a friend at all.

"How convenient that our next target is underground," 2584 chuckled.

"Sure," Charlie said blankly.

It was just beginning to become night. Steve had left to go somewhere and let Charlie follow him. Charlie purposely got "lost" to meet with 2584. He didn't worry. He and Steve had agreed to meet at his house at morning if they got split up. Besides, it wasn't like anyone cared about _him_, a lowly creeper.

"Hey," Charlie tried to start a conversation. 2584 only looked at him sideways. "I, uh... I'm sorry about last time."

"Water under the bridge," 2584 responded promptly, but his words were devoid of any sincerity. It hurt Charlie again, to see how cold and disconnected his companion was. Did anyone care for him? Charlie looked at the sky, brimming with stars. For a beautiful instant, a spark of hope lit up the entirety of his being, that there was _someone_ out there that cared and would laugh and cry and feel pain right along with him. It was then that the moon burned brighter in the ever-consuming darkness, and the stars seemed _right there_ for anyone to reach out and pluck them from the brewing ceiling of the world.

But as with the night before he watched his dreams fall like an injury from the heavens and be crushed under the feet of a thousand marching mobs. An eerie gust of hard, cold wind curled around him and pushed clouds into the path of the moon. Charlie watched the last brightness of the night be consumed by monsters in deafening silence and the moon's mute scream was laced into the shadows.

"Company, halt!" A spider at the head of the troops yelled to the mobs, and the army came to a sudden stop.

"You! 3435!" The spider made some kind of gesture to Charlie, which he assumed was pointing to the best of the spider's ability. "Get over here."

Charlie walked over to the spider, trying to look calm when he felt like he might explode from nervousness.

The spider looked at the creeper and spoke in a hushed whisper. "Your little sstrategy better work thiss time. Our target has more capabilitiess than one might expect."

"How so?"

"They have a... ssystem. A backup ssystem, in case things go wrong for them. We don't want to lose more mobss, so whatever it is you got planned, it _needss_ to work."

Charlie realized the amount of trust the mobs were putting into him. He had so much power! If he wanted to, he could sabotage the mobs, or the humans, or the mobs _and_ the humans. It was insane, and it was amazing.

For a moment Charlie felt another hope flutter inside him, that with this brilliant power all things would converge, and maybe everything would be okay.

Then a stab of nihilism speared his hope and once again it died in the cold, rotting darkness inside of him. Once again he felt how impossible everything was, and the night became a little thicker with the inky blackness of shadow.

Mobs don't feel hope, he thought. The stupid feeling they called hope had been instilled in him by Steve, obviously, and it was causing him so much pain because every time he dared to dream he only came crashing down to the earth where the birds would peck at his dry bones and tear out his hardened heart and watch it bleed the useless hope onto the dead land.

His thoughts scared him, because it was becoming increasingly difficult to tell what thoughts were his own and what thoughts belonged to the Voice.

"3435!" The spider gave him a worried stare. "You sspaced out on me."

"Sorry," he mumbled. "Just... do whatever works. I'm just a creeper, what would I know." He turned and started to leave.

"No." Charlie was startled by what he heard and looked closely at the spider. "3435, I know you think we mobss are evil because we beat and kill the living shit out of the humanss. And it's right." The spider looked away in shame. "We mobss can't really think for oursselvess. And that'ss why we need you." She stared right at Charlie. "I mean, how you ssaid it, sure you're just a creeper, but you're the _ssmartest damn creeper that ever wass. _If you're just gonna wallow in your sself-pity, go ahead, but it won't get you anywhere." Her voice was, unlike most mobs, quivering with fragile emotion. "Mobss need you, 3435," she whispered. "Now do ssomething amazing with your life, because you got the chance to do it, unlike the resst of us." And before Charlie could say anything, the spider had turned to the troops and yelled at them to prepare for battle.

Charlie watched in silence as he watched the spider lead the mobs into battle. Thankfully, 2584 had disappeared somewhere.

He sighed. "Notchdammit, I don't know what to do with my life." And he lifted his weighted gaze in time to see the birth of the battle as it emerged from the depths of the night.

This time, the mob army didn't come in waves. They came all together.

Screaming, hissing, groaning, clanking, _thwp_ing arrows into the air, the mobs advanced, running to meet the humans that spilled from the underground village's cave mouth.

The already loud noises of the mobs became mixed with the clash of swords, the _thwip_ of arrows, the cries from both mob and human as they went down.

_Do something amazing with your life._

The mobs seemed to just barrel over the humans, and they headed straight toward the cave entrance.

_Do something amazing with your life, because you got the chance to do it._

He watched the death of so many humans, each with a story and a life and stupid hopes and pointless dreams, killed in an instant by uncaring mobs.

_Do something amazing with your life, because you got the chance to do it, unlike the rest of us._

He scoffed. "You didn't know what you were talking about," he sneered to the battle. "What _chance_? I can't do shit just like any of the rest of you!" He screamed the last part, and as he did he saw something in the fight.

Something cleaved through the water-like flow of the mobs.

Charlie gasped. It was Steve.

Steve was mercilessly slashing, hacking, and thrusting away. He stood on a fallen mob and crowed something that was lost in the clamor of the fight before the mob under him dissolved into ashes.

What bothered him most was that Steve never said where he was going earlier that day. Steve didn't trust him with information. On the other hand, the mobs sure did.

Charlie grimaced. _That means nothing._

And the Voice pierced the borders of his mind as it said, _It means plenty._

"Shut."

The mobs poured into the underground village. Sound of combat came from the entrance. The initial field of fighting was littered with loot from both humans and mobs, and there were ashes everywhere. Some of the mobs and humans came to pick up the fallen loot.

"The hell."

A human clutching her stomach floundered out of the village, hollering something about the TNT system about to explode.

"_Up._"

Humans wailed as they tried their best to escape from the underground village, but the endless flow of mobs blocked off any attempts.

"Who are you talking to?"

Charlie turned around to face 2584 just as an explosion shattered the night. He did not turn to look at the ruined, smoking remains of the village. He only looked at 2584's face, shadows lit by the fires of the blast dancing across the face that was as vacated and desolate as the hollow insides of Charlie's soul.

"No one," he said flatly.

"Well, comrade," 2584 studied the burning wreckage sinking into the great maw of the earth. "Yours, and my, and the world's insanity is just beginning."


	10. Turning

Chapter 11: Turning

Once again Steve went off to go somewhere. Once again Charlie followed and got lost on purpose. Once again he went to meet with 2548. Everything was going on as usual.

Only this time, there was something that wasn't as usual.

The normally cheerful creeper was leaning against a tree and watching Charlie come. He silently led Charlie to the Frontier Cavern.

"Er, is there something wrong?" Charlie asked.

"There'ss been ssome… complicationss," 2548 said, frowning.

As they went down the pillar of water and went through the stone caverns, Charlie didn't understand what he meant. _What if they're going to get rid of me?_ He thought. How was a little nasty to think of.

He found out as he sat in one of the room-like rooms. An enderman walked up to the front and coughed to bring order.

"During the past few nights, the mob army has been largely successful in their conquests," he began. "However, and attack from the other side was inevitable. It could be delayed, but it happened. This morning, a small army of humans took on the Dream Den and the Submerged Castle. Both fell, and every block of the caverns have been lit. These caves cannot be used as bases for mobs anymore."

Just as the news was sinking in, the messenger arrived.

Panting and wheezing, the spider skittered through the hallways, jumped, bounced off of a wall and hit the entrance door(sort of) frame.

"_Huff_, ow," the spider said.

Everyone stared at the spider. The enderman sneezed, blowing purple particle effects across the room.

"_Ahem,_ sso, eh, where'ss MS-2517?" asked the spider.

"Here," a skeleton stood up at the front.

The spider took a deep breath. "Okay. So the Citadel of Spiders has been taken over. So has the Hole of Beasts. The one-hole-entrance thingy didn't work for the last one; they just poured lava down. Refugee mobs are everywhere! They're striking all over! There's about 16 million of them in total!"

"Gah! Cursed humans!" The skeleton pounded the nearest thing to him, which happened to be another skeleton. His fist fell off.

"Alright, then," MS-2517 said as calmly as possible, screwing his hand back on. "We can't afford to have what they call a 'turning point' in the war. We _will _win this war. The humans may have won the battle, but we will win the war. And I'm sure we will, am I right, MC-3435?" the skeleton looked at Charlie expectantly.

Charlie didn't answer right away. He was thinking. He wondered whose side to join and help: the humans or the mobs; his friends or his kind.

After all, the tables were turning.

**AN: All cave names belong to Pikmin 2, which belongs to Nintendo.**


	11. Attacking

Chapter 15: Attack

Hi everyone, it's been such a long wait (why is none of your business)! To answer a few questions, I won't be taking any OC things for the prequel or the sequel, if I even write one.

Oh yes: and to the anonymous proofreading reviewer: I'm listening to most of Microsoft Word's grammar corrections now. Hope that the grammar is now better. Maybe I need a beta. Or just be less lazy and reread my work.

Also, I made a new cover for the story! Yay! You can also find it on my deviantArt.

"EMERGENCY ASSEMBLY! GET TO THE MULTI-USE ROOM, _NOW!_"squawked an incredibly loud voice.

"What the…" 2584 breathed.

"NO QUESTIONING. JUST GET THERE, NOW!" The voice screeched again. How the sound was getting to everyone made no sense, but orders were orders: get to the multi-use room.

_Uh, I don't even know where the multi-use room is supposed to be,_Charlie thought, but followed the other mobs silently as they tromped out of the smaller rooms to a huge room. The ceiling was in a vaguely spherical shape, while the walls were completely flat. There were two torches placed on two stone pillars, which were adjacent to the stand where the speaker stood.

A zombie shuffled up to the stand. "Flrgurblavleboshceahituhanja gibu," it said.

A skeleton ran up to the stand, shoving the zombie away. "Sorry, folks," said the skelly. "What MZ-1649 meant there was, 'Please shut your pieholes so that we may speak.'"

There was a bit of laughter at that, but the words from the starting announcement, "Emergency assembly," put a nervous tension in the air.

The zombie pushed the skeleton back, and then spoke, "Graashnorlajfoihgnacdhe!" ( "I'm being serious here!")

"What- No, shut up, let _me_talk-"The skeleton and the zombie grappled for attention.

A disgruntled creeper walked up to the stand. "Oh, for Notch's ssake… Both of you get off, let _me_ do it!" it snapped. "Okay, are you all listening? All right, everyone. Sso, you know that recently, ssome of the other larger cavess have been captured by the enemy or are currently under ssiege. For example, the Dream Den, the Submerged Casstle, et cetera. Now, before thiss war was officially started, we were around number 4 on the large-and-important lisst. But ever ssince the fall of the other cavernss, we are now… er… let me check the sstatissticss…" The creeper stepped down for a moment to consult with other mobs. "Ah, it appearss that we are now… number two. Which meanss," the creeper said, raising his voice to let his words be heard in the now excited crowd, "that we are mosst likely to be the humans' next target. Sso, this meeting hass been called for uss to become prepared! We will now immediately transsition into battle preparation! Get out of here!"

Apart from the usual shuffling, all of the mobs quickly marched to their battle stations. A few creepers sat in small holes, where unlucky humans would fall in and meet their fate. The more expendable skeleton archers were placed near the cave entrance ("It's a very important job!"), while the accurate snipers stood on small ledges deeper inside the cave. Zombies hid inside almost invisible niches in the wall to jump on unsuspecting humans. Spiders hung silently on the dark ceiling, ready to spring down at the necessary moment. A few cave spiders over saw the cave spider spawning, while the others joined the normal spiders. Endermen mingled each other on unreachable areas, ready to teleport or drop blocks of sand to suffocate humans that passed below. A few confused chickens broke through the ranks of the mob army that lay in the deeper and darker regions of the cave.

"You there!" Charlie nearly jumped. "MC-3435!" He turned around and saw the head skelly, MS-2517, wearing a flap of old leather on his head as a makeshift helmet. "I've seen you around, and it looks like you seem to sit out of battle a lot. Getting too attached to your humans?" Charlie made no response. "Well, this one's a real emergency, so don't hesitate to do your job!" 2517 nodded at Charlie, saluted, and walked away.

_Notch-darn it!_ Charlie cursed. What was he to do? If he blew up in battle, what would Steve think?

_Don't give a crap about what_Steve _thinks!_ The Voice came back with such force that Charlie unintentionally made a "Phbbbbt!" noise, earning him the glances of a few mobs. "Sorry."

_Now listen up here, you._The Voice snapped. _You're a creeper. Notch made you for this very purpose: to blow up! Humans are the enemy! Join the mobs!_

_But…_ Charlie mustered the best argument he could think of. _But I don't want to!_ He thought, sounding incredibly whiney in his thoughts.

Surprisingly, the Voice didn't answer.

Charlie stood in one of the zombie-niches. 2548 happened to be nearby.

"This is your first battle, right?" he asked. "Actually, to be frank, it's my first, as well." 2548 paused, and then asked, "What do you think happens to us when we blow up?"

"This is no time for rhetorical questions."

The mobs stood in place for a long time. Several hours passed by without a single sound. The mobs became restless. Day passed and evening came by.

"Forget it," someone said, as the sun slipped under the horizon, while the moon peeked over on the other side. "They're not coming." And the tension eased.

But just at that moment, when the sun was gone and the skeletons' bows held down, it happened.

The world exploded.

Not literally, of course. However, the next worst thing that could have happened did happen: humans began flowing into the cave; holes in the top, the main entrance, hidden man-made tunnels. Wielding swords, bows, splash potions, and every other Minecraftian weapon that ever existed, they attacked.

The inexperienced skeletons at the front shrieked as they were shot down from the ledges, falling to the cave's bottom and shattering into pieces of bone. Those who lasted longer shot at the human archers. The cave was filled with flying arrows and their _whzzt_ sound as they flew through the air. Charlie thought he saw 2517 take a hit.

There was a loud yell from the humans, which must have been a command, because just then a pack of wolves burst through the humans' ranks. They attacked everything except the creepers, who were either killed in combat or explosions. One of the more creative humans placed, and then grew a sapling on a mob so that the tree suffocated it.

"Good Notch in Aether!" someone screamed. "This isn't supposed to happen."

Chaos was happening, yet somehow the well-trained mobs managed to keep order. At head Enderman ME-1365's yell of "Now!" the other Endermen dropped their sand blocks on the back rows of the humans' army. Along with the chunks of sand fell the spiders: Cave spiders did more of a hit-and-run strategy, poisoning humans at random and moving on, while the normal spiders did the rest. Zombies came out of their hiding places. Every now and then, a creeper's explosion ripped through the cave floor, adding to the already great noise.

For a moment, the mobs were able to hold the humans back. If anything, the humans were being pushed toward the entrance of the cave. Suddenly the humans turned tail and ran. The mobs roared in triumph.

_That's really, really strange,_Charlie thought. _Hold up. There's got to be a catch to this._ And there was. A spider screamed and ran, followed by an entire mob of, well, mobs, running away from several blocks of glowing, smoking, blinking red explosive.

"Oh, da-"Charlie leapt out of his niche and ran away, leaping over rocks, arrows, fallen items, and bodies, even when he felt that he was safely out of range. There were only a few more seconds until the TNT would explode, and then-

BLAM! Every mob in the area was knocked flat onto their faces as an incredible blast blew them forward. Several mob items, such as arrows, bones, string, and ender pearls, landed near the explosion site. An enormous dust cloud settled inside of the cave. A few figures broke through the dust, revealing themselves as the first humans to reenter. And the chaos started all over again, only this time on the humans' favor.

"Notch, Jeb, and Herobrine!" 2548 remarked, who had suddenly appeared at Charlie's side. "This is madness!"

And madness it was. Charlie had seen battles before, but this was his first one that he saw close up. This had to stop. This had to stop. _Can't we all just get along?_

_Just blow up, and it'll all be over…_

_It'll all be over…_

It was right.

All he had to do was blow up, and everything would be over. No more battles. No more carnage.

_Join the chaos_

All he had to do

_Do_

Was to

_It_

Blow

Up

Charlie prepared to turn into nothing but a blast of force, to join the millions and millions of unnamed creepers who had done so before him. In his mind he saw a mental fuse, ready to be lit.

Only…

_What?!_

Only he couldn't do it.

Because no matter how hard he tried, Charlie could not light the fuse. He couldn't put the fire and the fuse together to do what all creepers were destined to do.

_Not only can you not decide which side you want to be, but you can't even explode like any other creeper? _What _are you?_

And with that, Charlie slipped and greeted his only standing friend: the shadows.


	12. Deciding

Chapter 16: Decision

When the clanging of cold steel against stone and the muffled blasts of explosions finally died down, Charlie summoned the courage to pull his head out of the darkness.

The Cavern was in ruins. Explosions from either TNT or creepers had left huge, gaping holes in the walls and floor, and the former was lined with scorch marks and arrows while the latter was with ashes and loot. Strangely, the yelling had remained. The tone of it had changed, however.

No longer were the mobs screaming calls or battle cries. They were cheering in victory: "We did it! We held them off!" The Frontier Cavern, even in its now ravaged state, still was operational and functioning. That might have been true, but the second-biggest cave system had been crippled. The number of mobs had definitely decreased.

As Charlie thought about this, he realized what a coward he had been. He was a creeper, _meant _to explode and disappear from the face of the earth! Why couldn't he have done it? Why couldn't he have ignored everything and served his original purpose, helping the mobs? But was he even on the mobs' side? Everything was confusing. Everything made no sense. The world had gone mad, gone drunk with the prospect of war and winning and conquering and power, leaving the ones, no, _one_ with no side in a terrified and nonsensical state.

A voice broke him out of his thoughts. An all-too-familiar voice.

"Hello, Charlie," he said. "Or maybe I should call you MC-3435?"

Charlie didn't need to turn around to see who it was, but he did anyway. Steve stood right behind him, with the faintest trace of a sneer on his face.

"You were never really meant for this, you know."

They were back in the tree houses. The sun shone in the middle of the sky. Noon.

"Are you really that curious? Do you really want to know _why_ you are the way you are? Because believe me, you might not want to know."

Charlie found his voice and said, "Yeah. Yeah, I do. And I can't believe in anyone now." _Not even you._

"It was a bet." He said it flatly, as though they were having a reluctant discussion about the weather. "It was a bet between me and my friends."

So that was it. That was it.

His life, his consciousness, his thoughts, his joy, and his pain were all the product of one man's need for entertainment.

Could life get any crueler?

"What in the Nether, Steve," was all he could say.

"It's the truth." Steve showed no signs of sympathy. "The truth hurts.

"The better reason that I need to talk to you is because of the War," he continued.

"Oh, this war again, it's all about the war, isn't it?" Charlie began ranting. "You're all obsessed with the _idea_ of it! Of killing and violence and looting and selfishness! None of you warmongers give a crap about us, we're all the same to you!"

"Dear Notch- Charlie, I don't like this war any better than you do!" Steve swore loudly. "And I need your help to stop it!"

Silence.

"Fine, then," Charlie snarled. "Make it quick. I hate my life."

Steve ignored the last comment, and began. "You're the only one, or at least the only one that I know of, who's been on both sides and collected information about both of them. I don't know _what_ you do in those nightly meetings of yours, but _that's exactly the point._ What you know or what you can do is what can cause the vital turning point in this entire war. If you want to join the mobs, then that's who'll win. If you want to join us, then we'll probably win."

"Oh, and it looks like that I won't have a choice anymore. I'm gonna _have to _join your side, isn't it?"

He was expecting the answer somewhat, but it still surprised him. "No. No, you don't.

"I'm going to do something that might be dangerous, but I'm doing it because I feel that it's the right thing to do. I feel that everyone should have a say in what they are going to do, and have a choice. And that's how a lot of people feel.

"It will matter whose side you decide to take in this war, because whosever side you take is going to win. But the side that you're going to take isn't _my _choice, it's yours. When you're going to make your decision, it's not the humans' perspective or the mobs' perspective that matters here. It's based on _your_ perspective that will decide what _you_ want, not what someone else does. You can be the only mob that had a choice in where his life was going. But that's your choice, not mine. "

"But I'm a creeper," Charlie said glumly. "No one likes creepers."

"No one likes creepers because of what they do, not who or what they are. No one cares who or what a creeper is. But you're different, Charlie. You're the creeper who didn't explode."

"I wanted to."

"If you wanted to, you would have, but instead you're here talking to me."

He had to make a choice, and a difficult one that that. He felt little loyalty to the humans; they had done nothing for him. But he felt the same way with the mobs: they seemed to over-destructive.

So whose side would he take?

_Hello._

You're back.

_Yes. And you know what I'm going to say._

You want me to help the mobs, and join their side.

_Precisely._

Who are you, anyway?

_I am who you are. I am a part of you. I would be a natural part of you, but your doubt and disloyalty is what makes me a Voice._

I understand.

_No, you don't. You don't understand why you should join the mobs. _

Oh. Enlighten me.

_The mobs are you family. They are your friends. They will stay faithful to you, and they will always be there for you. They will be there when you fight, and they will be there when you die. _

But I know their brutality. I've seen their insanity. I've felt their hatred. The mobs are crazy beings, and they will never be tamed. They will never see the logic of peace.

_That is how it is for everyone. Including the humans. _

No. The mobs are fueled by hate and war. Humans have something different about them.

_But you have seen _their _bad sides, too._

All right, then, both humans and mobs have "bad sides."

_If you want it to be that way._

I was made to explode, right?

_Yes._

So I kill myself, and probably end another life too, all for what?

_For the mobs. For their purpose. They are your brethren, and you shall help them._

But I can think. I can talk. I can _do_. The mobs can't _do_ anything other than drive themselves for blood. Yet we're the same things. So what is it that makes me different from them? I'm the only one in millions of mobs that has whatever it is that separates me from other mobs. And you're saying I should just end my life like any creeper?

_Because that's all you are, and you will ever be. You will never have any other purpose than to explode as a creeper, and that's what you are._

Then explode I may, but for a purpose other than just violence.

"Well?"

"I-I'm joining your side."

He smirked. "I thought so."

**This story is going to end up shorter than I thought.**


	13. Closing

Chapter 17: Closing

**So, yeah, I'm not dead. :I**

**I mostly kept from updating because I thought that my writing isn't good and my older writing was even worse, but I have plans for this story.**

**The OCs will never appear again. It was a way of saying thanks to early followers as well as experimenting with new characters.**

**Also for the past few chapters I typed MC-2584's number as 2548. Sorry about that (but it's not like anyone remembers the numbers anyway)**

The Plan was awful. The Plan was terrible. The Plan was brash, irrational, and ridiculous. He couldn't believe Steve had the temerity to do this to him. He hated the Plan. The problem with it was that it was almost guaranteed to work.

Seeing Steve's smug look on his face made Charlie want to not follow the Plan and blow up immediately. But he calmed the turbulent feelings inside him; after all he agreed to work with Steve. Like Steve kept repeating, "It was your own choice to do this, so stick with it."

After pouring out all of the information he could possibly give to Steve, Charlie was told Steve's Plan. While he stubbornly expressed in every way that he didn't want to do it (but was doing it anyway), a part of him was pleased with it. It would solve all of the problems in every way, even his own. Probably.

"Hey, 3435!" 2584 greeted him. "Have any more info on the humanss?"

He did, actually. But Charlie told him that he didn't, since it didn't matter anymore.

"Ah, well, that'ss a pity." 2584 stopped talking, but looked at him suspiciously and tailed Charlie as he meandered down the winding walls of the cavern.

He walked slowly, trying to go as slow as possible, trying to absorb all the sights that he could try to take.

MULTI-USE

Maybe

ROOM 1729

it

An Enderman

wasn't

EXIT PATHWAY: SOUTH

worth

EXPERIMENTAL RESOURCES

doing

Charlie had arrived at his destination all too quickly.

except

There was no door. There was no need for one.

there

"3435, you're not authorized-"

was

The pile of TNT in the back

no

It was so much easier than back during the battle

turning

A sudden yell- "Dear Notch, 2548's turned sides!"

back

a clamor to stop him, but they were too late

now.

A skeleton loaded a bow, but missed in its haste. He heard 2584 snarl, "So you really were a traitor after all." They realized it was too late and ran over each other to get away; not realizing the TNT would reach them anyway.

There was deafening light and blinding sounds.

As everything began flashing white and the world began its closing, he reassured himself: This is my purpose. This is my fate. This is my destiny.

Only when the explosions started did he realize he had lied to himself.

**Exactly three more chapters left.**


	14. Ending

Chapter 18: Ending

**WOW LOOK AFTER NO UPDATES FOR ALMOST A YEAR I ACTUALLY UPDATED ONE DAY AFTER**

**Also, please review. I'm so lonely over here :[**

He was falling through solid darkness, yet he could see. It was only earth, dirt, all around. Falling, falling falling until his speed was slower, yet still falling towards the unknown destination.

It was empty, yet there were things to see all around. He saw his life in stages. Spawned. Tamed. Shown to friends. And still he remembered how all along the Voice had been there, telling him: you're a creeper; join the mobs, for the Mob War stirs…

He was seeing other things now- whether of the past or the future, he could not tell. There was a great dragon, black as the Void, roaring its purple heart into the black. There was a wolf, a spider, and a chicken, wandering aimlessly but with a purpose. There was a magician's apprentice with a scarred face, and there was a creeper swirled with binary. And there was someone, ineffably familiar, standing alone in the poignant rain that came in torrents down on the expanse called the land.

This was all gone now, and again there was only earth all around him, like a corpse tilled into the ground.

The words then began. They slowly rose up and lingered before fading away into the gradient of ignorance.

_I see the one you mean._

_The creeper?_

_Yes. Take care. It has reached a higher level now. It can read our thoughts._

_That doesn't matter. It thinks we are part of the game._

_I like this creeper. It played well. It did not give up until the end._

_It is reading our thoughts as though they were words on a screen._

_That is how it chooses to imagine many things, when it is deep in the dream of this world._

_What did this creeper dream of?_

_The creeper dreamed of sunlight and trees. Of fire and water. It dreamed it was created, and it dreamed it was destroyed. _

_And still the dream within the dream was freedom; freedom from reality and the cruelties of both worlds._

_But it must achieve in the long dream of life, not the short dream of this world._

_Does it know that we love it? That the universe is kind?_

_Sometimes, through the noise of its thoughts, it hears the universe, yes. But too often it will refuse to accept that truth._

_And there are times it is sad, in the dream. It dwells in worlds that have turned down our love and sunken into corruption. It shivers under a black sun, and it takes its sad creation as it is._

_To cure it of sorrow would destroy it. The sorrow is part of its own private task. We cannot interfere._

_But it would be so easy to tell it…_

_Too strong for this dream. To tell it now how to really live is to prevent it from living._

_I will not tell it how to live._

_The creeper is growing restless._

_I will tell it a story._

_But not the truth. _

_No. A story that contains the truth safely, in a cage of words._

_Give it a body, again, once we are done._

_Yes. Creeper…_

_Use its name_

_Hello. Charlie, MC-3435, creeper of many identities._

_Good._

_An introduction. We are the universe. We are everything you think isn't you. You are looking at us now, through your skin and your eyes. And why does the universe touch your skin, and throw light on you? To see you, player. To know you. And to be known, I shall tell you a story._

_Once upon a time, there was a man._

_The man was not you._

_Sometimes the man dreamed of the world, with a surface that was infinite. The world was cruel and beautiful, deathly and magical. _

_Sometimes the man dreamed deeper, and saw the world as it really was. The world was merciless and unforgiving, following strict rules with no exceptions, wound by strings of code and ropes of numbers. The universe is kind, but this world was not._

_Sometimes the man dreamed that it could control these rules, strings and ropes, and changed a creeper._

_Let's go back._

_The creeper was scattered in the world: in the grass, in the rivers, in the air, in the ground. A spawner gathered the pieces and assembled the creeper in code._

_And the creeper awoke from the fires of the spawner into the long dream._

_The creeper had no new story to tell, no new program to run. It was one of billions, just like the others._

_Until the man and the creeper crossed paths, and he changed the program, and changed the story. _

_You are the creeper. The story. The program. Made from only heartless binary, but doing what no code could execute._

_You. You are the creeper, reading words._

_You were not alive, and you are not alive. And yet sometimes you were truly alive, without us telling you how._

_And sometimes the creeper believed that the universe it lived in was true_

_And sometimes the creeper glimpsed the zeroes and ones that it believed were false, and hated them_

_And still the universe said I love you_

_And the universe said you have lived the world well_

_And the universe said everything you need to truly live is within you_

_And the universe said that you are stronger than you know_

_And the universe said you are the daylight_

_And the universe said you are the night_

_And the universe that the darkness you fight is within you_

_And the universe said the light you seek is within you_

_And the universe said you don't have to be alone_

_And the universe said you are not separate from every other thing_

_And the universe said you are the universe tasting itself, talking to itself, reading its own code_

_And the universe said I love you, even when you are not love._

_And the world had ended and the creeper had drowned in the dream. But it is time to begin a new dream, and dream better._

_You were the creeper._

_You are nothing._

_You will become something else, something greater, through our power._

_Wake up._

And he did.


	15. Respawned

Chapter 19: Respawned

**Thank you to everyone for following, favoriting, and reviewing this story during the three years it ran.**

**This isn't the last chapter though, so stay tuned.**

Charlie walked through the foggy grasslands. No, not Charlie. He wasn't even sure himself of who he was.

He walked to the final frontier: the Subterranean Complex. Almost completely unexplored by any human. For them, it was a hostile place, full of dangerous creatures that lurked in the darkness. But for the mobs that lived there, it was a safe, beautiful haven.

As he walked into the dark cavern, sunlight making its last futile struggles to reach into the unfamiliar stone maze, he occasionally lit his way with redstone torches. He liked them better. The dim light was better for the mobs, and also reflected his feelings.

Fog seemed to follow him as he walked, his steps echoing inside the cave's voracious maw, shadows arching over the ceiling and looming over him. With the mist that hung around him like that, he might as well have been a ghost. Perhaps that was just what he was: a faint reflection of what he once was, but was no longer.

His thoughts wandered to Steve, and he felt a cold pang of anger at his betrayal. Steve. That lying, back-stabbing, cursed _human_. All of those good times and they all lead to _this_. Still, those were good times… The feelings of anger were washed away by a wave of nostalgia. Maybe they could be friends again…

Yeah, and maybe one day all of the Endermen would hold a swim party with flying pigs that laid eggs.

He half expected that it would be the Voice that corrected him, but there was no more Voice. The Voice was a natural part of him now. The Voice was him.

He recollected his last encounter with Steve.

_It had been a beautiful, sunny, day. Huge, white puffy clouds covered the sky and crowded at the horizon. There was bright green grass all over the ground, with just the right ratio of trees to empty space. _

_ But the state of the day does not predict the state of the upcoming events._

_Steve was walking, pickaxe in hand. He saw him, and he ran up to him and yelled, "Steve!"_

_ Steve turned around and saw him. He abruptly drew his sword and hissed, "_Stay back_!" There was a cold, hard, glint in his eye, not unlike the light that reflected off of his sword blade._

_ "Steve, no. It's me. Don't you… Don't you recognize me?" His voice faltered a bit._

_ Steve's glare softened a little. "Ch-Charlie? Is-"_

_ "Yes, it's me!" Relief washed over him. Steve _did _recognize him._

Looking back at the memory, he smirked. How he didn't know what would be coming for him.

_"Y-You're not Charlie." Steve's glare went back to full blast. The sword blade went up, the point aiming at him, shaking a little bit._

_ "But I am." He stepped closer to Steve, who stepped back. "_I am,_" he insisted again._

_` Steve lowered his blade and looked at him, hard. "I know that you're not Charlie," he said, slowly and firmly, "because you're someone else."_

_ He paused, and said flatly, "You're Herobrine."_

-END-


	16. H

The following was found in the home of human ID = 508 "Steve"

For the mobs, the situation's dreary- you've left our forces struck and weary

and now there's nothing left to do but curse out all our heart at you.

Especially for me, Steve: you thought that you could just leave-

Leave me for dead, the problem solved- but my life has been renewed

I'm even quite afraid for you because my new form's deadly too.

As you can see quite easily I've got a new identity

No longer am I the one destined to die

as the blood on the hands of a heartless, cold man

Then, I could not realize that my life had been a lie

Then, I never dared to fly on my dreams toward the sky.

In that oppressive state of mind I even thought that you were kind

Now I'm awake and now I know that it was all an act and show-

To ease you of your pain you killed me off for your own gain

And now if I ever think of you my hate can only grow

Whether moments away or long ago, you shall always be my foe.

So remember this, Steve- You can never be relieved

or run from the sinful things you've done

This isn't the end, my once-ago friend

One day it'll happen- _You'll_ be the one

who'll be dead on the floor when I come.

And if you still cannot see

how we're bitter enemies

(don't even bother trying for peace)

It seems you can't tell

what the future will spell

while I can see you're going to have

hell.

Goodbye- I shall see you again

but never once more after then.

From H, once your friend C

with help from 1173

**The end**

**For the convenience of us all, the first chapter of the prequel has been posted with this chapter. You can find it on my profile.**


	17. Announcement (fixed)

Announcement

When I was 11 years old I first started coming up with the beginnings of a story about a creeper who was tamed via hacking.

It's been three years since the publication of this story and I managed to gather enough courage to read the abominations that are called "Chapters 1 through 15ish." I can't believe you readers have stuck with me throughout all that.

I've decided that the earlier parts of the story are pretty much the worst things I've written or read, and since this is the only real fanfiction project I have, the story just underwent a **massive rewrite.**

I'm pretty much done with it now, though, so any returning readers can have a gander at that.

Good day.


End file.
